Courage Versus Worms
by Pondering Writer
Summary: A sudden, strange battle has started in Nowhere. Courage has to make it cease in order to protect Muriel and Eustace from the clash.
1. First Strike

_**Courage Versus Worms**_

Chapter 1: First Strike

It was a day like others in Nowhere. Courage was peacefully sleeping on Muriel's rocking chair. Muriel herself was working in the kitchen, while Eustace was reading the newspaper. Nobody was paying attention to the TV, which was on.

After some commercials, a film was aired. It was a war movie, and it didn't pass much time before the scene got into action. When a cannon of a battleship fired in the TV, Courage was abruptly woken up, and he made a big jump, crashing into the living room's ceiling. Eustace started to laugh at the pink dog:

"Ah ah, stupid dog! You can't even watch a simple film without being scared?"

Muriel, having heard Courage's crash, had got in the room. "Eustace! You shouldn't bother Courage because he doesn't love to watch war films like you!". She took the remote from Eustace's hands and turned off the TV.

"But Muriel!" complained Eustace "It is just a film! What about watching some great action, big battles and epic stories?"

"Do I have to remind you that these film are based on real events, where people battle themselves? Do you like this?" replied Muriel.

They started to argue about films based on wars. Courage was still stuck in the ceiling, and he spent two minutes to exit the hole and fall on the floor. The dog watched his two owners, and he decided to not participate the discussion, also because he was still a bit stunned by the sudden awakening.

Courage went upstairs. He was going to the attic, as he wanted to use his computer. While he was on the stairs, Courage heard a strange, loud noise coming from outside.

Then, a powerful quake made the ground tremble violently. Courage lost his balance and fell, almost hitting every step of the stairs. He stopped at the first floor of the farmhouse. Courage stood up, frightened, but the quake had already passed away.

He ran in the living room, where Muriel and Eustace were as surprised as he was.

"Courage! Are you all right?" asked Muriel, worried.

Courage went to her and gave her a hug. Eustace grumbled something, annoyed. He watched through the window outside.

"Stupid kids, playing with firecrackers..." moaned Eustace. Then, he sat on the armchair and resumed to read the newspaper, as nothing had happened. Muriel watched him oddly.

Courage went to the window, too, in order to see what was going on. He was stunned by the sight of a big mushroom-like cloud far away. Surely, the cloud was created by an explosion which caused the quake.

"Courage, what could have happened?" asked Muriel, right at his side. Courage shook his head as to say "I don't know...".

"You should really go there and see if somebody needs help, Courage!" said Muriel.

Courage thought that it wasn't a good idea to go in the place where there had just been an explosion, but Muriel was insistent. Eventually, he had to accept, and reluctantly he left the farm and headed for the location of the event. "Be careful, Courage!" said Muriel while he was going away.

The more Courage moved nearer to his destination, the more the desert became less sandy and more rocky. In fact, Courage reached a place where huge rocks, stones and various formations were everywhere. There were also dry bushes and some saguaros.

The dog entered a sort of rocky valley, closed by his two sides. At the end of the valley it was visible the crater of the explosion which blocked the other exit and prevented any attempt to leave the place. When Courage reached the crater, he gave a quick look to his surroundings.

Apart from him, there was no sign of anything suspicious or interesting in the area. Courage tried to think of something to say to Muriel: perhaps a government fighter had tested some type of bomb there? In fact, it wasn't the first time that Courage had to do with the military. In any case, he gave a sigh of relief at the fact that no further hazards were going to happen.

He turned with the purpose of going home, but he gave a scream of surprise when he saw a weird tombstone he had not noticed before. The fact was that this tombstone was animated! It was like it was dancing.

Courage was frightened, but it was just the beginning. A unknown voice called him from behind.

"Hey! Hey, you, doggy! Come here!". The voice was whispering, as the speaker didn't want to be heard by anyone other than Courage.

Courage slowly moved towards the big rock where the voice was coming from. He was shuddering. Suddenly, the speaker revealed himself from his hiding place behind the rock.

Courage tried his best to hold his mouth closed.

In front of Courage there was a worm. It wasn't like the ones you find on the ground on wet days. Instead, he had a humanoid big face, with huge eyes and a large mouth compared to his body. His hands were separated by his body, and he didn't wear any type of cloth. Of course, he had no legs, he was able to move by crawling. He was only a little taller than Courage. He raised his eyebrow when he saw how much scared was Courage.

"Little dog, I know I'm perhaps odd to you, but I'm not a monster. Still, we don't have time to talk about this... You must get out of here!" said the worm.

Courage scratched his head. "What's happening here? Who are you?" he asked.

"I am Douglas, and I have just told you that we don't have enough time to talk... you are making _them_ discover us too early! Go away if you want to survive, get it?!". The worm was already starting to get angry.

Courage decided to follow the worm's advice. It was the first time that someone suggested him to go away from a dangerous situation. Still, Courage didn't know that the worm had warned him too late.

Courage noticed something going towards him. It was a rocket. The dog screamed and took cover behind a large stone just before the rocket blew up on the ground.

Courage heard at the same time Douglas, the worm who had talked with him, and another, different voice shout an order: "FIREEEEEEE!". Then, it all became a pandemonium.

The poor dog stared at an huge battle raging on around him. All types of rockets, grenades and explosives were being shot and thrown by the two sides of the valley. It didn't pass much time before the stone which was protecting him was blown up by a rocket.

Courage started to run as fast as he could, trying to evade all the shots which were falling around him.

At the top of the two sides, Courage was able to see various worms, which were just like Douglas was. On the left side, the dog could barely see that the worms were wearing military helmets, while on the right side the worms were naked.

It seemed to Courage that the two teams were fighting for the death. He had to do his best to escape various wrong-shot rockets and failed-thrown grenades, but some of the worms were really trying to hit Courage, maybe because they believed he was an enemy.

Courage screamed when a shot coming from a shotgun missed him and almost destroyed his small tail. When he saw that even helicopters and bombers, coming from unknown places (they weren't of the military of course) were beginning to arrive and bomb all the place, Courage made a last rush to the only exit of the valley.

Finally the dog reached the exit to the valley and ran away from the battle. The worms luckily didn't care of him, they were too busy to fight themselves, and Courage could stop after a while to breath and regain.

The dog watched the battle going on from his safe position. He could see flying worms screaming, thrown away by blasts. Courage scratched his eyes when he saw something like a pigeon flying above the battlefield, but when he opened them all he could see was another big explosion.

Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, all stopped. Courage was so bewildered that he fell on the ground and remained there, watching the rocky valley (or at least, what it had remained of it). The worms seemed to have disappeared, but Courage could see some of them leaving the rocks and going away in the desert.

Courage's head was full of questions. Who the heck were those strange guys? Why did they do so large battles between themselves? And where did they come from? Courage believed to have seen everything, but Nowhere was still able to surprise, and scare, him.

The place was very quite now, but Courage remembered how much quiet was the valley before the clash started, so he decided to return to his house quickly. He walked away from the place, heading for home.

When Courage reached the farmhouse, Muriel ran to him "Courage!" she called "What happened? I heard something like a war! Are you fine? I'm so sorry I asked you to go there!". She gave him a hug, pleased to see him alive. Courage relaxed himself for a moment, but when Muriel carried him in the living room he remembered the last events.

When Muriel let him away, he tried his best to tell her and Eustace that there were worm soldiers battling for some reason in the surroundings. He even transformed himself into a worm just like Douglas and shot a bazooka at a imaginary target, to show them what he was talking of.

Unfortunately, both Muriel and Eustace didn't understand a single word from Courage. To make things worse, the rocket of the bazooka exploded on Eustace's face. Only the presence of Muriel prevented him from getting very angry. "Aaagh... stupid dog... Darn kids, I hate them" said Eustace while sitting on the sofa, then he started another time to read the newspaper like everyday.

"Oh, Courage, don't listen to Eustace. I'm sure you need some rest, you look really scared" said Muriel. She patted Courage's head.

The day was already going to finish. Some minutes before dinner, Courage was in the attic, in front of his computer. He had decided to search for information about those worms. He couldn't know if they were gone... or not.

"Crawling soldiers fighting with missile launchers? Did you perhaps drink alcohol yesterday evening?" asked the Computer's voice, sarcastically. Courage had not much patience to joke with him, so he answered him angrily.

"Ok, ok, don't be mad..." said the Computer. After some time, a sound was emitted.

"I found something. It looks like that in 1995 there were the first sights of these worms you were talking to. Of course, nobody trusted the viewers... some of them were also taken to asylums." Courage felt his backbone tremble. Something like a little laugh was emitted, but before Courage could complain, the Computer continued to talk.

"Anyway, the events where the battles were seen continued to happen, until five years ago. Do you want that I insert your name and story in the list?"

Courage typed instead his request to have more information about the worms.

"There isn't much information in this file. Witnesses state that the worms use various types of weapons, most of which are weird. A witnesses that seemed to have talked with them said that they battle for a precise reason. However, he couldn't say what the reason was, precisely. Mankind always surprise me... They have much fantasy, haven't they?"

Courage was no more listening to his computer. What could have brought the worms to battle another time, after five years of peace? And why in Nowhere? Courage was frightened by their battles, which he had experienced could be very dangerous for witnesses.

The pink dog went to the window in the attic and watched outside. He could still see the greater rocks from the formation where the battle had taken place in the afternoon. It was still quiet.

Courage was called by Muriel for dinner. When he arrived in the kitchen, he saw that Muriel was happy and Eustace was angry, like everyday. It was like nothing had happened in the previous hours. Courage couldn't do anything apart from eating his food. He hoped that the worms had gone away from Nowhere, and their battles with them.

Courage couldn't of course know that he was wrong.


	2. Night Encounter

Chapter 2: Night Encounter

It was late in the night. Eustace and Muriel were already sleeping in their bedroom, while Courage was still awake on the bed. He was still thinking about the events of the previous day, and was too nervous to sleep properly.

He decided to go to the bathroom with the purpose to wash his face. Courage got out of the Bagge's bedroom, but could do only a step out before he heard a noise coming from outside.

The noise was barely audible, but for Courage's canine ears it was like the noise was emitted in front of him. It was something like a small rock being hit by something, and the pink dog knew that there were some stones around his house.

Courage was frightened. Trembling, he went to the window in the hallway and watched outside. No one was out there, at least in that side of the house. Courage tried to not think that there were three more sides of the house where hypothetical monsters could hide in, and wondered if it was a good idea to simply forget the noise and return to sleep.

An image came into Courage's mind to answer him. He thought of the farmhouse, with Muriel inside, being bombed by bazooka's shots until total destruction. The thought was so horrible that Courage had to calm himself down to prevent an heart attack.

When he was done, Courage realized that he had to control entirely the surroundings, to protect Muriel. He was almost sure that the worms were the cause of the noise. What did they want from him?

Courage quietly went down the stairs. Without making any sound, he approached the main door. He silently opened it.

The dog closed his eyes, rotated his head shuddering and struggled to open them to watch to the left side. He gave a sigh of relief when he saw that there was nothing suspicious in that part. Courage was so pleased that he totally forgot his previous efforts to be stealth and simple watched the right side. The consequence was Courage giving out a loud, sudden scream, jumping with fear.

The dog immediately returned inside and slammed the door behind him.

Three worms. Just out there.

Courage was surprised by the fact that he recognized Douglas, the one who had tried to warn him in the valley, in one of them. The worms were almost identical, and there was no physical difference apart from their voices. Anyway, this wasn't the thing Courage was most concerned with by now. He was hidden behind Eustace's sofa, ready for the worst.

"Hey, dog?" called Douglas from outside. "We don't want to harm anyone. Just let us inside, we have to talk with you at once."

Despite the friendly tone of Douglas, Courage wasn't trusting him completely. He could only say "Go 'way".

"Can't we simply blow up the door?" asked a second voice. Courage held another scream of fright.

"Agent Dennis, your ideas caused us to fail hundreds of battles, so please could you just SHUT UP?!" Douglas was indeed pissed off by Agent Dennis' idea.

Then, a third voice started to talk directly with Courage. "Listen dog" said the third worm behind the door "We have to talk to you before things become... _hot_, so would you please open the door and prevent us from bursting into your house with or without your answer?"

The worm had a point, and Courage was fearing for the _hot things_ which were going to happen. In the end, he had to leave his hiding place and open the door to his three new guests.

At half past eleven PM Courage was in the living room, now with lights on, staring at the three worms, who were returning his gaze.

An idea suddenly came to Courage's mind. Muriel! Courage wondered if she had woken up because of his previous shriek, but no sounds were coming from the upper floor apart from Eustace's loud sleeping noise. Courage thought that perhaps they were really tired, probably for the events that had occurred the previous day.

"Yes, they won't disturb us... for now" said Douglas, who had noticed Courage watching the ceiling. Courage returned to pay his attention to the worm. "Now, I'm sorry to tell you dog that you must go away from there. You and your family."

Courage was taken aback by that request. "WHAT?" he almost shouted, surprised. "Are you mad?"

"No, we are worms." answered the third worm sarcastically, the one whose name wasn't known yet by Courage. "Now listen, doggy. There is the situation: outside there is an entire team of worms, our enemies, that are going towards this house. On the other side, there is the rest of our team, who is waiting for us. We are going to face the Bacabe exactly in this area, so if you don't want to explode you will definitely have to escape from this place."

Courage heart sank. His previous thought had predicted what was going to happen that night.

"It is exactly as Boggy Pete has told you, dog" said Douglas "If you and those two old persons up there want to survive, you should get out of there as soon as you can".

Courage couldn't believe them. "But there must be another solution... I mean, you can't simply tell us to..." He started to say, but he was interrupted. A grenade thrown by someone outside suddenly entered the living room.

"TAKE COVER!" shouted Douglas. Courage and the three worms tried to protect themselves as fast as they could by the bomb. Within two seconds, the grenade exploded.

Of course, if Courage's scream wasn't enough to awake Muriel and Eustace, a blast of a grenade which made the entire house tremble violently was indeed enough to abruptly woke them up.

"What's that stupid dog doing?" said Eustace angrily.

"Eustace, I don't think that it was Courage. We better go check out what is going on." said Muriel. Then, another explosion caused another quake that passed through the entire house.

At the lower floor, there was a complete war going on. Douglas, Boggy Pete and Agent Dennis were at the windows of the kitchen and the living room, shooting and battling a group of helmet-headed worms. But outside the battle had a much larger scale, with a line composed by Douglas' team which contained the Bagges' farmhouse which was facing the Bacabe's one. With a unknown manner, the worms of both the factions had built simple covers for themselves, which were obviously needed in an almost complete desert. There were loud noises coming from everywhere, explosions, shots, animal calls, old women shouts.

And Courage was hidden in the basement, watching the battle. He was behind the door, which was opened enough to let him watch the kitchen. Courage could only see Agent Dennis under the window shooting outside with his shotgun, but the various sounds of the battle, including Douglas insults at his enemies, made him realize that the clash was bigger than he expected. Of course, Courage gave a scream at every bomb or missile that seemed to hit his position and ran out of the door. Every time he returned to the exit of the basement to continue to search for a way to escape. "When is this nightmare finishing?" he thought, shuddering. The entire wall that was covering Agent Dennis and his two mates inside the house was _disappearing_, annihilated shot by shot.

Muriel and Eustace screamed when they saw what was going on through the bedroom's window. They ran out and decided that the attic was the safer zone at the moment.

The battle lasted for about 5 minutes without any big events. Courage was considering if trying to get upstairs to find Muriel when Agent Dennis watched outside for a moment to clarify the enemies' position. Courage watched his face almost as frightened as his own for second.

"Oh my... DOUGLAS, GET THE HECK OUT OF HERE, SHEEEEEEEP!" shouted Agent Dennis with all his might, and the worm just flashed out as fast as he could, crawling out of the room.

Courage was bewildered. What? A sheep? Was Agent Dennis scared of a sheep?

The sheep in question was going to answer Courage directly. The little, pretty animal jumped into the house, unaware of all the inferno around it. Courage watched it for some seconds, surprised. The sheep landed on the kitchen's floor and right away jumped another time. The animal launched a tiny, cute "Baa!". Then, it detonated.

The blast was so strong that the basement's door was torn out. The door was thrown away against the wall bringing with it a screaming Courage, and the poor dog was squashed between them. The last thing that the dog could hear before he passed out was Boggy Pete shouting "RETREAT!".

The sheep attack ended the battle. Douglas', Boggy Pete, Agent Dennis and their allies quickly left the area. The victory was indeed achieved by the Bacabe.

When the battles' sound disappeared, Muriel and Eustace had to wait two minutes before they could actually stand up and leave their position in the corner of the attic.

"What happened?!" said Muriel, still shuddering. Eustace grumbled something, angry and frightened at the same time. "I hope Courage is OK" said Muriel "we should go down there and look for him, Eustace!". Eustace muttered "Mmrgrm... All right".

They left the attic and went down two levels of stairs, reaching the living room. When they saw what had happened to their house, they were astonished.

The wall on the side where the TV used to be had been completely obliterated, and the kitchen was no more existing at all. The house was creaking loudly: perhaps the upper part was near to fall down on the damaged side.

Outside it looked like the moon's surface. Strangely, the barn and the windmill had been spared by the fury of the battle. However, the chicken coop wasn't so luck and was no more a part of the area.

"Oh my..." said Muriel. Suddenly, her thought came to her dog. "Courage!" she called "Where are you?"

Eustace instead was annoyed by the fact that the TV became a victim of the clash. When he heard Muriel calling Courage, he said "Umphf, that stupid dog, it has surely something to do with all this mess. If I find him, I will..." "FREEZE!"

Eustace stopped talking and both him and Muriel stayed motionless, their hands raised. The heard something crawl behind them, then unknown hands searched them, as to control if they had weapons.

When the controller was done, someone said to them "Well, you won't be harmful for us. You can turn if you want now."

Muriel and Eustace turned and were surprised to find themselves face a large group of worms. To the two humans, the worms were just as tall as kids, but they were still nervous to see various rifles and bazookas pointed at them. They wore a military helmet and a pair of brown gloves.

"Eh? Earth worms in my house? What are you doing here?" said Eustace "mph... I don't care, I will just get rid of you. Muriel, I'm taking my mallet" and he turned in the direction of the stairs. He was stopped by one of the worms, a determined look on his face, who aimed his shotgun just in front of Eustace's chin. The farmer was enough intelligent to understand that he'd better stay calm. "Don't do sudden actions and maybe you won't be shot in the head..." said the rifleman.

"Very well" said another one of the worms, with a deep, strong voice "Let me present us. My name's Fab, and these are my mates, members of the same team. Now the question is: what are you two doing there, in our battle area?" The worm wasn't angry, but his tone wasn't friendly at all.

"Excuse me, Mr. Fab" said Muriel politely "but I would say that _we _should ask you what are you doing here. We have lived here for various years, and...".

"Impossible" interrupted Fab, no trace of emotion on his face "Our orders are clear and there can't be errors. Anyway, we encountered them, so..."

"Encountered who? What are you talking about, you stupid insect?" said Eustace rudely.

A "click" was heard as the rifleman who was still threatening Eustace charged his shotgun, ready to fire. "Wrong, old man. Not insects, we are annelids" he said with a grin.

"I agree, Def" said Fab with his emotionless manner "but indeed, I cannot trust your words completely. For me, you can even be spies... although I have never seen teams using spies. Anyway, there is always a first, so I'm afraid that you two will have to come with us."

"This is not gently!" said Muriel.

"Log98, and Def! Take these two old humans to the base. I want them guarded every hour. If they try to attempt an escape... You are authorized to blow up them." Def laughed at the order, while the worm who seemed to be Log98 turned suddenly and nodded fast, like he feared his boss.

"Andy, Cab! Follow me. The rest of you, search the area and count the tombstones. I want to know the exact number of the worms who had fallen."

The team fractured and every one of the worms followed Fab's directives. Muriel and Eustace were forced to leave the house, towards somewhere in the Kansas desert.


	3. This is Us

Chapter 3: This is Us

Courage was recovering from the head hit. His leg was blocked by the door that used to link the kitchen and the basement. The dog tried to lift it with all his might despite his headache.

Courage was beginning to succeed in his attempt when he heard some sounds. Crawling sounds. The dog immediately stopped and hid behind the door. Two worms entered the basement and began to search the area. They wore helmets, and Courage didn't know if they were enemies or not for him. The dog was shuddering and just before one of them was going to control under the destroyed door, a voice called from above "Stop your business, we are leaving!". Courage saw from his hiding place, through the door's keyhole, the worm considering whether he should control the door as a last task or not, but luckily the annelid changed idea and followed his mate upstairs.

Courage gave a sigh of relief, but didn't attempt another time to free his leg before the sounds of the worms had completely disappeared.

When he thought he was safe, the pink dog managed to lift the door enough to let his leg away. Courage stood for a moment, as the headache returned in his head. It was in this moment that a buzzing thought went through his mind.

"Muriel!" he shouted. The dog quickly ran upstairs, and for a moment stared at the remains of the kitchen as his masters did minutes before. The light in the basement was the only one that was still working. Then, he started to call Muriel, and even Eustace some times, for all the house. He looked for them everywhere: the living room, the attic, their bedroom and the bathroom, without caring of the loud cracking noises that his movements created in the half-destroyed building.

At the end, Courage exited the house from its main entrance. He made a last, loud call for Muriel, towards the deep desert. No one answered him, except for the farmhouse which at last collapsed and bent his upper part of 45 degrees on the damaged side.

Courage was of course scared of that unexpected event, but he was too concerned about Muriel to care about it much. "Where are you?" said Courage, with a little tear on his eye. Did the worms take them? But why? Courage couldn't think of anything. He sat on the ground, moaning to himself, in the night.

Then, the cavalry arrived. Courage raised his head to watch what or who was coming towards him. The more they get nearer, the more Courage could see of them.

It was a small group of worms. They were of Douglas' team as Courage recognized them for not wearing the green helmets. However, Courage stayed motionless, without standing to wave to them.

The worms, four in number, reached him. One of them patted Courage on the head.

The dog watched the worm and realized he was Boggy Pete. Another time Courage was stunned by the fact he could distinguish the worm by his three companions without hearing their voices. In fact, they were physically identical.

"So dog... I'm sorry for your house, but we couldn't..." started to say Boggy Pete, but Courage stopped him. "Did you take my family?" he asked, holding a growl.

"Eh? What are you talking about, little pink animal? We didn't take anyone. We..." the worm who was speaking was hushed by Boggy Pete. They watched themselves: "Oh, no..." said the worm.

Boggy Pete returned to pay his attention to Courage: "I can only say I'm not happy about you going into all this mess. Trust me, we had no choice..."

"_No choice?_ Now explain me why should I trust you. You destroyed my house. You and the others up there..." Courage pointed nervously the opposite side of the desert with his paw "...who also kidnapped my family for no apparent reason, and I don't even know if they are alive. Why in the world should I trust you?". He was almost shouting.

"Wrong, dog" said Boggy Pete coldly, forgetting his previous efforts to be kind "Your masters were kidnapped for a reason, because if not they would be there on the ground. It is almost lucky that they eventually took them instead of get rid of them". Courage was trying to not pass out another time in front of them.

At this moment, the worm who spoke previously turned to him: "We don't know how they are by now, dog, and I'm sorry... However, we came here to meet a squad of the other team, with the purpose to decree the winner and confirm the next battle location. We are probably going to talk about them... You can join to listen our discussion if you want."

Courage watched proudly the worm who offered his help to him. He would have accepted everything to save Muriel from those war demons. Boggy Pete was almost annoyed... but at last he said "Well, looks like Mc Hood is going to be the diplomat here. We will see how you will act with our enemies" Mc Hood trembled for a second at Boggy Pete's words, but he smiled at Courage as to say "He agrees."

The four worms and Courage waited near the ruins of the farmhouse for the other group of worms. After some minutes, Boggy Pete said: "A thing, dog. We reallly had _no choice_. I don't know if you will come to know why, but be assured I'm not lying". Courage wanted to apologise for his previous outburst, but Boggy Pete was not even watching him. They stayed silent until some black points where visible in the far desert.

"Here they come..." said one of the worms.

"Do not do any imprudent actions, dog" said Mc Hood "Normally we wouldn't pay much attention to diplomacy but this time we have to be careful". Courage nodded at the order, though he didn't know if he could obey it.

Four military helmets approached Mc Hood and Boggy Pete's group and didn't stopped until they were face by face.

"Very, very, well..." said one of the worms. "From which time did the Destroyers start to use spies?"

"I don't know what are you talking about, Def" said Boggy pete without any sign of fright on his voice, unlike Mc Hood who was shuddering.

"You know what he is talking about, Pete..." said another one of the worms. He watched Courage deeply, and the dog felt a shiver move through his body "... and that animal is the evidence".

Boggy Pete was not impressed by the worm's notice. "This dog has nothing to do with us. Neither does his masters. We don't use spies... And you know it, Fab".

"Then" said Def "can we just annihilate them, Fab?". Def would have laughed if we wasn't taken aback by Courage's loud scream. Mc Hood and one another Destroyer had to hold him and calm him down.

"Keep that stupid dog quiet!" said Def.

"There is no need to talk more..." said Mc Hood while still holding Courage. "You won, and the next battle is going on in the mountains over there..." he pointed to some small contraptions far away "... is that all?"

Nobody answered the call... Except for Fab.

"We had an idea to make things... a bit more interesting. You aren't concerned about these two old humans, but this dog is indeed, and if he is with you you can't be totally uninterested by them. So, how about a deal?" Fab raised his hand to Boggy Pete "If you win the battle tomorrow, we will give you back the two humans. If you lose, we will do to them what we want..." Fab emotionless tone was weird, but Def's laughs were there to make Courage fear for Muriel. "...then?" he asked.

Boggy Pete watched his enemy in the eyes. Then, he shook his hands with him "Fine." he said. Afterwards, they both said something that looked like as a ritual. "The Destroyers declare their loss..." said Boggy Pete, and Fab finished "...and the Bacabe declare their victory". For Courage, it was surely a strange diplomatic method.

"Seeing you tomorrow!" said Def with a strange smile.

"Whatever..." answered Boggy Pete. Both the groups left with no other words, heading for opposite directions.

Courage didn't know what to do at first. He glanced at his house, or what was left of it, then he watched the naked ones going away. He decided to follow them, and the dog ran until he reached the group. Nobody told him to go away.

"I think that the others won't agree with your decision, farmer" said Mc Hood. Courage didn't know who he was talking to until Boggy Pete answered "Perhaps... or perhaps they will, as it doesn't change a thing for us". Despite his cold voice, Courage was glad that he had accepted Fab's offer. It was his only hope at the moment.

"For a moment, dog, I thought you were going after those guys" said Mc Hood to Courage. "Good heavens you didn't decide to do so. You will see how much a worm base is well defended. Your chances to free your masters alone are... minimal to be honest". Courage was frightened at the thought of what kind of weapons could be used by the worms in their "house".

They walked (or crawled) for about 10 minutes in the desert around Nowhere. Courage lost both the sights of his house and of the road in front of it, and at the same time started to see something on the horizon.

They reached the Destroyers' (eventually this was the name of Mc Hood and Boggy Pete's team) fort. Courage was stunned by its appearance. It was big, with various lines of towers as to defend the centre. The more you were near to the centre, the bigger the towers were. Various guards were standing on the peeks of the buildings, and moved themselves with quick jumps Courage wouldn't have thought them capable of. One of them waved at Boggy Pete when he saw him. Some others were preparing weapons on wooden platforms. For example, there was one worm which was loading a mortar with... a priest? Courage thought he was dreaming. He watched carefully this time, but the worm had already loaded the mortar and the dog couldn't see the bullet inside.

There was no type of cage in the perimeter; in fact, the walls that linked the buildings were so low that Courage could simply jump over them to enter base. Courage wondered what was the wall's function, as they appeared to be a bit useless.

The group passed through the area, wall by wall, until meeting up with another group of worms just in front of the building located at the exact centre of the base. He noted that it was huge, larger than every other construction in the base. It seemed to be important. Courage recognized Agent Dennis and Douglas in two the worms, another time without knowing how he could do that.

"... So?" asked Douglas, curios to know the result of the meeting.

"Well, it hasn't been much different from previous ones, but there is a little thing that indeed has..." said Mc Hood. He explained to them what was said. Other worms gathered around him to know about the future.

When he finished, all the worms watched Courage. The dog stayed silent, as he didn't know what to say.

Douglas approached him and patted him on the head with his flying weird hand. He tried to comfort him: "Tomorrow we will fight like any other day, Courage. To win at all costs. I cannot be sure that we will beat the Bacabe, but we will do everything in our power to do so." he said.

Agent Dennis was whispering with another worm. Courage heard him thanks to his canine hearing: "We don't win a battle from... how much time? One month? Two? I don't even remember. Freeman, I doubt that we will restart to win exactly tomorrow. I'm afraid that the dog's masters are doomed..." Courage felt like a stone had hit him directly into the stomach.

Most of the worms had returned to their positions, and now Courage was alone with Boggy Pete, Agent Dennis, Douglas and Mc Hood. The dog had hundreds of questions, but one suddenly came to his mind. Douglas had called him by his name... But he had never said his name to them!

"Hey, how did you come to know of my name? I have never told you!" asked Courage, surprised.

"Well, how can you distinguish me from my mates, apart from our voices?" asked Douglas. Courage stayed silent, surprised at his intuition. "The reason is the same. We don't know how exactly it works, but it seems we have some kind of unnatural power inside us..." said Douglas.

"I can sense you want to know about us..." said Mc Hood. Courage nodded.

"Well, I think you deserve some type of explanation after all the mess you came in." said Douglas.

"Yes, yes... I'm leaving, Douglas..." said Agent Dennis and he went away. Boggy Pete gave a quick gaze to Courage, then he followed his mate.

"Don't think they are bad, Courage" said Douglas "Boggy Pete is as polite as a bear and Agent Dennis behaviour is surely questionable, but they are good soldiers and faithful team mates."

Courage was going to start with the most important question: "Why do you battle others of your species?"

Douglas and Mc Hood watched themselves. The second one answered him "We would like to have an answer to that question too, pink dog, but we haven't. We don't of course battle randomly... We have orders. But before you ask who is the boss, I would tell you that we don't know him, we don't even know if he exists either. The next moves, the places, the teams we have to face, they all came to our mind battle after battle. And we can't just disobey them... It is in our blood, or something similar, I don't really know. We _have_ to do it."

"You sound like a philosopher. Strange for a Scottish annelid" commented Douglas. Mc Hood glanced at him, and Douglas continued his speech: "You should know that the building in the centre..." he pointed to it "...the Stronghold, is very important because of our own life. We can't really die in battle. You see the worm that had just exited from that tent?" Courage watched a guy waving at him "he fell in the last battle at your house. We simply regenerate ourselves at the hospital of our bases... When a team loses too much battles, it can happen that the next battle takes place as a siege of the loser team's base. It can end with fail for the attackers, but if they manage to destroy the Stronghold, the losers... _die_. Definitively."

Courage was bewildered. Those worms had a strange life... and he was sad for their situation. He would have never desired to live a life where you had to kill your own brothers, with our without your approval. Courage tried to find some type of emotion on Douglas' face. Perhaps he wasn't happy, but he wasn't sad either.

"I think that inside the Stronghold there is the essence of our life... or something very important for it" said Mc Hood.

"Seriously, Mc Hood, you should join a philosophy university between every match" commented Douglas. Mc Hood watched him oddly.

"Douglas!" called Agent Dennis from somewhere "How about stopping to play the tourist guide and going here to help us?"

"I'm coming!" answered Douglas. He then told Courage "Tomorrow will be important also for you... I think you can participate or at least listen to our conversation about the strategy". He smiled at him, trying to be friendly.

Courage accepted the offer: he wanted to know more about these guys and their combat style. He followed Mc Hood and Douglas through the base until reaching a tent were Boggy Pete, Agent Dennis and some others were discussing. Mc Hood and Douglas joined the group as Courage sat on the ground listening to them.

At a point, Courage was deep in his thought, quietly stopping to listen to the discussion. There was some hope about the destiny of Muriel and Eustace, but... these worms had not won a battle since what time? It wasn't because Courage wasn't confident about them, but because he feared about the possibility of a defeat of the Destroyers. He tried to push away the thought of what the Bacabe could do to Muriel in that case, but it was useless. He knew that he couldn't simply wait for their fate in the base tomorrow: he had to do something.

He was called by his thoughts from the word "Sheep" uttered by Boggy Pete. They were now talking about animals, both about using them and defending from them. The weapons these worms used were obviously not normal. Courage couldn't help but smile at some of the names he heard.

Anyway, the dog still was still scared by the remembrance of the explosion of the cute animal in his house. Agent Dennis noticed his fright and couldn't help laughing.

"Do you fear sheep?" he asked. Courage nodded, as there was no need to lie. The worm laughed another time "I know it's the first battle you see, and I don't like the image of a sheep incoming... but trust me. A sheep is _nothing_. Really, there are much worse tools of destruction in our hands, doggy!" Agent Dennis seemed to be proud, but Courage had to hold a scream at his words. He wished he was joking, but deep inside he knew he wasn't.

The night went on with the worms still arguing between themselves, and after about an hour Courage, who was very tired, fell asleep on the ground.


End file.
